Join us 11/16/23 for NHCA/CAOHC Webinar: Considerations When Selecting Hearing Protection for Hearing-Critical Tasks

CAOHC and NHCA have teamed up to offer high-level webinar content on hot topics, with top-notch speakers!When:  November 16, 2023 2:00PM – 3:00PM ET
CEUs: 1-hour CEU (AAA ) and (0.1 ASHA)
Pricing: $38 – NHCA/CAOHC members, $50
Program Level: Intermediate

About the Webinar: Functional hearing is critical for many tasks in the military and public safety where performance impacts could have life-threatening consequences. However, many of these occupations also involve frequent exposure to harmful noise. Ideally, our warfighters and public safety officers (PSOs) would have readily accessible Hearing Protection Devices (HPDs) that protect them from high-level noise exposures while preserving auditory situation awareness (SA). The unfortunate reality is that many HPDs degrade auditory SA, so our Service Members (SMs) and PSOs must often make a deliberate choice when engaging in hearing-critical life-threatening tasks between 1) wearing a hearing protector and sacrificing some SA or 2) operating without hearing protection and risking a temporary shift in hearing thresholds, both of which may impact their performance during the mission. The latter choice may also result in permanent hearing damage, which could impact fitness for duty or make them less effective in future operations. Yet, many still choose to operate without hearing protection. Read more about this webinar here.

Moderator: Kathy Gates

Presenter: Benjamin Sheffield

Learning Objectives: 

1. Describe forms of objective and subjective assessment for quantifying combat performance.
2. Discuss the potential drawbacks of forgoing use of HPDs while engaging in combat operations.
3. Describe different types of hearing protection and their impact on communication ability and operational performance.